Wednesday
Jan302008
Sweethearts
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 06:48PM 
By Sara ZarrOfficial release date February 1, 2008
(but already in many stores now)
Reviewed by Leigh Leveen
Sweethearts is a heart-wrenching novel written by National Bok Award finalist Sara Zarr. It is filled with serious and current themes of teenage life – the search for identity, the need for friends, the disappearance of true friendship. I found this book compelling. And I also found it intense. The novel’s protagonist, Jenna, is full of life, as well as insecurity and hope. She is a heroine who lives in the real world we exist in, not the nether world of fiction meant to be read only on the beach.
Jennifer Harris is an overweight, insecure 9 year old when the story opens. She befriends Cameron, another school outcast, and together they fill in each others’ blank spots. Until Cameron disappears one day and Jennifer never hears from him again. Eight years later, Jennifer had morphed into Jenna Vaughn, the first name a purposeful change on her part to leave behind the 9-year old she was, and the last name a gift from her new step-father. She has moved house and schools, and now plays the part of the popular girl, which includes a boyfriend, a thin body, and a posse of friends. She remains compassionate, but is lost about her own true self – where does the old Jenna fit into her new life she wonders? And would anyone she knows now like the old her, and if not, then are they really her friends? These questions plague Jenna throughout the novel, and it is her self-discovery that makes Jenna into the heroine she rightly is.
Cameron returns from a long lost absence out of the blue. He comes back into Jenna’s life like a full force tornado. She is over-whelmed with her feelings for him, and with the memories of their shared abuse at the hands of his father. The journey Jenna takes to meld the old her and the new her into one self is often sad, often hard to read, and most definitely true to life.
Adolescence is filled with the things that we do to define ourselves. This novel reminds me of how often those attempts are wrong decisions made for the right reasons in the minds of teenagers. The themes are decidedly adult – identity, self-worth, abandonment, and child abuse. These are the things our teenagers are thinking about and living through, no doubt, but they are also themes and issues, which left without an adult figure with whom to discuss it all, could lead to misguided attempts at self-discovery. Jenna’s childhood self stole, overate, and lied. She spent a lot of time alone while her single mother worked two jobs. She was harassed by her peers, and had no one to turn to. She suffered child abuse, and watched her only friend suffer it constantly, and was not to talk to anyone about what had happened. That is an intense set of circumstances to read about.
The world we live in asks our children to grow up early; it is a common complaint among parents I know. But I believe it is a disservice to ignore the reality around them. It is our job as parents to walk with them on this journey until they have very solid sea legs. Sweethearts is the perfect novel for mothers and daughters to read together and it offers a perfect chance to walk with your teenager hand in hand over some pretty rocky territory.
I give the novel 8 binkies.
Sweethearts is a heart-wrenching novel written by National Bok Award finalist Sara Zarr. It is filled with serious and current themes of teenage life – the search for identity, the need for friends, the disappearance of true friendship. I found this book compelling. And I also found it intense. The novel’s protagonist, Jenna, is full of life, as well as insecurity and hope. She is a heroine who lives in the real world we exist in, not the nether world of fiction meant to be read only on the beach.
Jennifer Harris is an overweight, insecure 9 year old when the story opens. She befriends Cameron, another school outcast, and together they fill in each others’ blank spots. Until Cameron disappears one day and Jennifer never hears from him again. Eight years later, Jennifer had morphed into Jenna Vaughn, the first name a purposeful change on her part to leave behind the 9-year old she was, and the last name a gift from her new step-father. She has moved house and schools, and now plays the part of the popular girl, which includes a boyfriend, a thin body, and a posse of friends. She remains compassionate, but is lost about her own true self – where does the old Jenna fit into her new life she wonders? And would anyone she knows now like the old her, and if not, then are they really her friends? These questions plague Jenna throughout the novel, and it is her self-discovery that makes Jenna into the heroine she rightly is.
Cameron returns from a long lost absence out of the blue. He comes back into Jenna’s life like a full force tornado. She is over-whelmed with her feelings for him, and with the memories of their shared abuse at the hands of his father. The journey Jenna takes to meld the old her and the new her into one self is often sad, often hard to read, and most definitely true to life.
Adolescence is filled with the things that we do to define ourselves. This novel reminds me of how often those attempts are wrong decisions made for the right reasons in the minds of teenagers. The themes are decidedly adult – identity, self-worth, abandonment, and child abuse. These are the things our teenagers are thinking about and living through, no doubt, but they are also themes and issues, which left without an adult figure with whom to discuss it all, could lead to misguided attempts at self-discovery. Jenna’s childhood self stole, overate, and lied. She spent a lot of time alone while her single mother worked two jobs. She was harassed by her peers, and had no one to turn to. She suffered child abuse, and watched her only friend suffer it constantly, and was not to talk to anyone about what had happened. That is an intense set of circumstances to read about.
The world we live in asks our children to grow up early; it is a common complaint among parents I know. But I believe it is a disservice to ignore the reality around them. It is our job as parents to walk with them on this journey until they have very solid sea legs. Sweethearts is the perfect novel for mothers and daughters to read together and it offers a perfect chance to walk with your teenager hand in hand over some pretty rocky territory.
I give the novel 8 binkies.
